media plus blue ray player

[prosenjit]

both type playes...also 1 TB seagate ntfs playes smoothly..
but imho an asus just 1k cotlier than this item will be an wise choice as it can also bit stream

 

[mathan]

WDTV does not play sound when audio is decoded in AAC. Need to switch to stereo mode from digital mode to have it play. Any workaround for this. Also sometimes it does not recognize Mpeg 4 files.

 

[vakharia]

both type playes...also 1 TB seagate ntfs playes smoothly..
but imho an asus just 1k cotlier than this item will be an wise choice as it can also bit stream

Thanks.
WD TV Live Hub is around 11.5K and the WD TV Live is around 7-8K.
Which ASUS product are you referring to? And what do you mean by "bit stream"? It serves as a DLNA/ UPNP server?

 

[prosenjit]

asus o play mini...3.6k..
what is bitstreaming..well..try google..any questions welcome

 

[vakharia]

Minimum price for O Play Mini is around 3.9K at the moment.
Mini Plus is around 7-8K.

 

[dheerajjotwani]

Moving forward everyone will host their media in a cloud whether on the internet or their own home network. Keeping this is mind its best to get a media player that supports network. You could then upgrade your old routwr qith one that has usb support and plug your hdds in there for easy streaming. You could look at a raspberry pi with either the xbian or the raspbmc images. All inclusive it will cost u around 4k and a little effort. It could do local playback from your drives plugged in for the momebt and can stream over lan/wifi once you host those hdds on the network.

tapped on Note II cdma

 

[vakharia]

Moving forward everyone will host their media in a cloud whether on the internet or their own home network. Keeping this is mind its best to get a media player that supports network. You could then upgrade your old routwr qith one that has usb support and plug your hdds in there for easy streaming. You could look at a raspberry pi with either the xbian or the raspbmc images. All inclusive it will cost u around 4k and a little effort. It could do local playback from your drives plugged in for the momebt and can stream over lan/wifi once you host those hdds on the network.

tapped on Note II cdma

I don't see that happening soon here in India unless we get high speed Internet connection without FUP at affordable rates.

Anyway, I did my research around Raspberry Pi and I concluded that it is not really cheap but quite low powered device.
Rs. 3450 for the device with case.
Rs. 350 for the codecs (MPEG 2 and one more)
Rs. 950 for SD card (16 GB with Raspbian or something else)
Now, isn't it better to buy an Asus device for around Rs. 4000 instead?

 

[dheerajjotwani]

Well for a media player rpi is just perfectly powered. U forgot to add a charger. A 5v 2a adapter runs it most stable and ur good with a 4gb class 10 card. Raspbmc or xbian are both free to download and can be setup using a regular windows machine. What it gives u is good hi def media playback locally as well as over the network using xbmc.

Most of us here have network attached storages/media servers running at home. I am sure hosting over the internet is a no go currently but in your own home network, its the best way forward. The reason being we no longer consume the media through a single device connected to our tvs... there are handheld devices, computers and more media players gunning for the same content.

If u need any assistance setting a rpi up, buzz me

tapped on Note II cdma

 

[prosenjit]

dupe post dupe post

 

[prosenjit]

Minimum price for O Play Mini is around 3.9K at the moment.
Mini Plus is around 7-8K.

o play mini is 3.6k...after applying coupon
Asus O'Play Mini HD Media Player 1080P with 7.1 Audio O Play OPlay .Mkv .m2ts | eBay

Asus O Play O!PLAY Mini Plus HD Media Player USB 7.1 channel Acetrax OPLAY | eBay

7.9k.....price of plus

 

[vakharia]

A 5v 2a adapter runs it most stable and ur good with a 4gb class 10 card.
Most of us here have network attached storages/media servers running at home.

I was considering Raspberry Pi, but after adding all the costs, it seemed to go beyond the 'low cost' price tag.
Of course, the advantage is the low power consumption (around 3-4 W) and it is best to use it for downloading in that sense.

I have an old laptop kept mainly for downloading which I can retire if Rpi can replace it for torrents with scheduling included and ability to write 4GB+ on NTFS partitions.

Since I do not have a dedicated media hard disk at the moment, I thought of adding one portable 1 TB hard drive (around 4K) to this device. I could use our Samsung Note 10.1 charger (2Amp) if it works with Rpi. It does not work with my Motorola phone somehow.
Also, I heard there is no way to turn off the hard disk safely because there is no ON/ OFF button on the Rpi. So there is a high chance of corrupting the data on the USB HDD. You will have to log on to the Linux console to do a shutdown safely everytime.

I am not saying the device is bad, but there are lot of changes one needs to make to get the best out of this tiny device.

Also about the SD card, isn't it true that if you have large BD rips, you will need lot of space on the SD card (min 16GB) to do some transcoding during playback?

If u need any assistance setting a rpi up, buzz me

You should create a separate thread to share your experiences on this so that all of us can learn more.

 

[dheerajjotwani]

I was considering Raspberry Pi, but after adding all the costs, it seemed to go beyond the 'low cost' price tag.
Of course, the advantage is the low power consumption (around 3-4 W) and it is best to use it for downloading in that sense.

I have an old laptop kept mainly for downloading which I can retire if Rpi can replace it for torrents with scheduling included and ability to write 4GB+ on NTFS partitions.

Since I do not have a dedicated media hard disk at the moment, I thought of adding one portable 1 TB hard drive (around 4K) to this device. I could use our Samsung Note 10.1 charger (2Amp) if it works with Rpi. It does not work with my Motorola phone somehow.
Also, I heard there is no way to turn off the hard disk safely because there is no ON/ OFF button on the Rpi. So there is a high chance of corrupting the data on the USB HDD. You will have to log on to the Linux console to do a shutdown safely everytime.

I am not saying the device is bad, but there are lot of changes one needs to make to get the best out of this tiny device.

Also about the SD card, isn't it true that if you have large BD rips, you will need lot of space on the SD card (min 16GB) to do some transcoding during playback?



You should create a separate thread to share your experiences on this so that all of us can learn more.

Well firstly, rpi is not about being low cost. It is more about all that you can achieve with it. Having said that, it sure needs tinkering. It is not a out of the box ready to use product. Once you start with an open mind, you're gonna end up learning and amazed.

To answer your doubts one by one:
1. Torrents with scheduling possible even auto downloads of sitcoms with mailing notifications and easy control with Android phones, tabs or any browser.
2. Writing and reading off ntfs in a linux environment has come a long way. Things work extremely well but since its linux and dedicated I suggest everone to go with a linux based file system. Chances of corrupting the data reduce massively. Moreover we can also spin down these drives when data is not being written or read to further enhance efficiency and disk life
3. Portable hard drives need more power than rpi can give so iits best to buy a powered external drive or a powered usb hub.
4. Yes u can use a note 10.1 charger with a micro usb cable to power the rpi.
5. these rpi have been made with a 24x7 operation in mind so you are correct there that it needs shutting down through linux console. But then y would one want to turn them down really.
6. I dont transcode on mine so cant comment on that. I have a first gen rpi streaming content off the network storage with ease in xbmc. Maximum I have gone is about 8gb so far.
7. One can have the rpi multitask torrents and xbmc so the effective playback is local. Moreover you dont need to move data to and fro anymore.

Cheers

tapped on Note II cdma